Traveler's Tales
by Exile Wrath
Summary: Allen Walker was a traveler who loved exploring the vast unknown tracts of wilderness of the world with his friend Lavi. On the way, they somehow got a peppy Chinese girl, Lenalee, and her grumpy swordsman cousin with anger management issues named Kanda to join them. Let the adventures grow wilder! Yullen Week 2012 compilation, begins as genfic.


**Exile: Yullen Week is here!**

**Theme: Off the Maps. **

**Pairings: Reversible in this chapter.**

**Day: 1**

**Don't own this, so don't be plot thief.**

* * *

Off the Maps

Allen and Lavi loved to travel. Well, they didn't exactly _travel_. Wanderers weren't proper travelers. The two cousins were free of any real burdens of _travelers_. No worry about where you were going, no need to pack ridiculous amounts of _luggage_, just wandering was going wherever you felt to go. The cousins did not carry much emotional baggage either, as they stood in the train station, giving farewells to the people in the town they had grown acquainted with during their stay.

"Will you two be able to send letters, at least? We'd like to hear from you two once in a while," Bak Chang said as he stood on the platform, the rest of his adopted family with him to say their good-byes to the wanderers they had housed for a good seven months.

Lavi laughed to ease the group's gloomy atmosphere. "Sure! We can write, but we'll be on the road for a while. It isn't common that we stay in one place for so long, but dang, New York was a nice place!"

He was cut off by the blowing of the train whistle. There was a sudden flurry of movement, as quick hugs were given to For, Rou Fa, Rikei, Shifu, and Bak before Allen and Lavi departed away on the train to Albany.

They were wanderers. The way they met people was ever constant. They would wander into others' lives and wander away idly without any regrets, and the two cousins had been at it for seven years now. They were experienced wanderers.

"So, where to now, cous?" Lavi asked brightly as he flopped onto the train seat. Across from him was his white-haired cousin of sorts, Allen Walker, who was reading a map with interest. "We've… been… nearly everywhere in the U.S. already. Wanna try Canada?" he suggested impulsively.

Allen thrust the map into his face. "Why _Canada _of all places? It's as cold as Maine in the winter." Lavi took the map and raised an eyebrow. "We haven't been to the Midwest yet, and you're supposed to have photographic memory, Bookman."

The red-head winced, suddenly reminded of his old grandfather that had gone missing. "That was a low blow, cousin!" he complained. "And don't say stuff like what Jiji would say and remind me of him!"

The Brit snorted. "Well, your choice to brag about your perfect photographic memory everywhere we go," he retorted.

Lavi shut up about the subject, knowing that Allen would simply throw more words at him. "So why the Midwest? Isn't it all grasslands and prairie and parks and boring?" he inquired.

Allen shrugged. "Well, we've been in San Fran, which is on the Ring of Fire, got hit by Katrina in the Hurricane Gulf, and you nearly got hit by an electric lightning bolt in the Lightning Alley in Florida. The part of the Midwest we're going to is Tornado Alley, so I thought, 'why not?'"

All he got in reply was a one-eyed stare of disbelief. "So exactly _where _in the Midwest are we going?"

They shared a quick grin as they chorused the standard wanderer's reply to any and all destination-related questions. The two had been wandering for years and knew these words like a second language. "Nowhere in particular, just where our feet take us!"

* * *

**TWO DAYS LATER**

"'Wherever our feet take us' isn't supposed to be _literal_, Al!" Lavi protested faintly as he stared at the expanse of the Great Plains that seemed to be green, endless, and grassy.

The other merely grinned, stepping forward. "Well, we're already here, and the tourist car left without us. And you know what Mana always said to me, no?"

Lavi rolled his eyes. "'Keep on walking.' Please stop with the taking aphorisms literally!" And with that, the two set off to wander the Great Midwest on foot, no matter how much one of them complained.

"Eternal Tornado?" Allen asked curiously as he munched a bag of chips that night as they sat on both sides of a campfire. "In this area?"

Lavi nodded, using a red marker to do something to the poor map. Brow furrowed in concentration, the redhead muttered to himself as he scanned the map, seemingly looking for something. "Ha!" he declared, circling a spot on the topographic, comprehensive map of Tornado Alley they had bought from a cartographer shop. "The Eternal Tornado is a phenomenon that there are rumors of, but there hasn't been any real evidence of its existence. It's wiped a bunch of cities off the maps, and it usually stays within one area. The government has sent men and equipment to find out exactly what happened to these places, but nothing and no one ever return. And from up above, the thing apparently looks like a giant, gray sphere."

He passed the map back to Allen, who looked at it incredulously. At the center of the red circle was what was apparently a small town, but it was unmarked and unlabeled. "Innocence is not included on any current maps. Anyway, what you say, cousin?"

"Innocence?" Allen asked questioningly. "Do you think there are any survivors?"

Lavi shrugged. "Who knows? This tornado swallowed up everything in a fifteen mile radius around the place. Not a single hide or hair has been heard of the inhabitants since 1998."

His wandering partner rolled his eyes. "Lavi, we are not like the brothers from _Supernatural_, you know."

The eye-patched teen huffed. "Hmph. But we should live up to our nickname as the Exorcist Duo!" he whined.

Allen put his palm to his face in exasperation, glancing at his gloved left hand. "For the last time, just because my arm is all black and has a cross embedded in it does not mean I have special powers, you dimwit!" he retorted. "Our life is not a TV show!"

Lavi ignored his cousin. "So you see, at this rate, we'll be at the edge of the boundary of the Eternal Tornado at about three days."

Allen tuned out Lavi, resigning himself to his fate. _How is it that we are still alive again?_ he wondered sardonically, then got to work penning a letter to Bak and his family.

Innocence was a quiet, if not windy, place. Little dust devils often ran down the streets, sucking in all leaves and loose dirt they could. Other than that, there was no other sound than occasional voices. Lenalee hated it. It was always quiet. She missed hearing voices other than her brother's, her own, and her friend's. Besides, Kanda, unlike her, was fairly reticent and talked very little. Komui was always busy trying to find out how to get rid of, or at least get out of, the tornado's vortex. She hoped to get rid of the thing. It was all the tornado's fault.

She was too little to remember when the tornado _hadn't _existed and her parents and everyone else had been awake. Komui had been twelve then, and he had been the one that raised Kanda and her and educated and fed them. Electricity and running water they still had, and they hadn't ever worried about running out of food. After all, they were the only three people awake.

Three people out of six hundred and some people of Innocence. The rest of city had been asleep since 1998, a perpetual sleep that was like a living death. Other than themselves, no one had been spared from their sleep, even people from the government, the ones who had been sent to find out what happened, fell asleep after only three steps into the tornado. They had been transported to the mattress shop to sleep peacefully, their technology taken by Komui to dismantle, examine, and use the parts. No one died in their sleep, not even the town's elderly, but they were dead in Lenalee's eyes, breathing or not, because until they woke up, they would not, could not interact and _live, _much less speak. Sometimes she wondered how people would react after waking up. Little babies would wake up in fourteen-year-old bodies. Teenagers would be in their late or early thirties. When she was four, the town had gone to sleep and never woken up again.

"Lenalee~" her brother's voice called from inside their home. "There are people approaching the north side of the tornado. Can you go with Kanda to pick them up? There's only two of them."

Lenalee stood up from the porch, stepped, and went to slip on her boots. They had been their grandmother's, who had died before the tornado had started a couple decades ago. Shouting an affirmation to her brother, she departed the house and met up with Kanda. "Only two this time?" he asked. Lenalee nodded and set off to the north tornado wall.

Slinging his antique yet deadly katana onto his belt, the Japanese teen followed behind her. He was often silent, and seemed to have simply accepted whatever was in store for the three of them. A bit unkind of times, but he acted like an older brother to her most of the time. At least he was not as scarily overprotective as Komui was. Getting into a car, Kanda revved up the engine and Lenalee hopped in. It's not like they had superhuman speed of some kind that would get them to the tornado miles away.

They drove down a beaten path, as Kanda drove with a lead foot. They passed through other towns as well, full of sleepers, some of the buildings damaged by a dust devil or a whirlwind. Going at seventy-five miles per hour, they reached the edge of the force that was directly next to the tornado in ten minutes. Then they got out to embark the rest of the way on foot, prepared to fight at any time. Some of the larger animals had not fallen asleep and still prowled about. They walked on silently, and that was the reason why they stopped in their tracks.

"See, Al? We're alive!"

"Ugh, why won't the bloody lights just shut up?" someone else complained.

Voices! Voices from people! People that were awake! Alive! Lenalee broke into a sprint before bursting in on the source of the voices, Kanda quickening his pace in a semblance of hope. In a clearing near the roaring wall of wind sat two people, obviously male, one with fiery red hair wrapped in a bandanna with an eye patch over his right eye, the other with abnormal white hair, a jagged, angry scar running through his left eye, and gloves.

Breathlessly, Lenalee looked at them, and they stared back. "H-hello?" she croaked.

The redhead blinked at her before turning to his companion. "Told you there'd be people still alive, Allen!" he grinned. Turning back to her, "I'm Lavi Bookman, ladies and gents! This fellow here," he gestured to the one with white hair, "is Allen Walker, my cousin! We're wanderers, wandering where we wander to, if you please!"

Before Lenalee could answer, Kanda stepped in front of her, hand on his katana's hilt. "Why are you two, no, how are you two still awake? By this time you should have fallen asleep from the narcoleptic effects of the tornado," he growled.

The cousins, and for a split second there was a flash of change in their expressions. "Narcoleptic effects of the tornado?" Allen asked. "Who are you two?"

The Asians exchanged glances of confusion at the odd newcomers, immediately defensive. Maybe these people weren't just plain strangers.

* * *

"Wait! So everyone is alive, but _asleep_!?" Lavi inquired Komui in disbelief. All five sat at the wooden table in the Lee home, sipping a warm, sweet tea Lenalee had served.

The infamous pink bunny mug was set down on the table and Komui folded his hands thoughtfully. "Yes. As far as we know, they are locked in a perpetual sleep. The age during this time, but other than that, they are frankly frozen in time." Peering over the rim of his glasses, the self-taught scientist observed the two wanderers. "Believe it or not, you two are the first people I have spoken to outside of the tornado," he mused sadly. "Everyone else is asleep, and have been the moment they stepped in."

Allen raised an eyebrow. "Only you three are awake? Are you completely sure?"

Kanda grunted in confirmation. "Che. They're more like dead rather than asleep. Not being able to move, talk, or eat. What kind of living is _that_?" he growled shortly. "We also have no idea why we're the only people awake."

"Have you guys ever tried to escape the tornado?" Allen suggested. "Or is it a one-way thing?"

Komui glanced at Lenalee, who was watching the newcomers with rapt curiosity. It was natural, of course. She hadn't seen or heard another person than he or Kanda for her entire life. His hand twitched for the 'protect Lenalee' robot's remote control, his brotherly-care perking up. _If these two do anything…_

Komui shook his head. "It seems to be a one-way thing. We have tried walking out of it, but we always end up back on this side of whatever barrier is keeping us here. Same goes for any item we throw at it."

Allen and Lavi adopted grim expressions. "We have to get out of here somehow."

"Lavi, this is utterly your fault," Allen muttered.

Lavi looked indignant. "Hey, that's unfair, cous! You're the one who decided to go to the Midwest in the first place!"

He wilted under Allen's hard stare. "Lavi, I would kick your head if I was Bookman!" he threatened. It was right then when there was a sound of breaking glass, and Lavi collapsed to the ground, twitching as a wizened old man stood on his head. Allen eyed the scroll in his face with alarm and the holder of the scroll with disbelief.

"Another awake perso- wait! Isn't that the old man you guys picked up five years ago?"

"I remember that old man! He was put in the library to sleep!" Lenalee piped.

"But why is he awake?" Kanda snapped, drawing his katana to knock away several needles.

"I've been awake, you fellas just never bothered to check!" retorted an elderly man with black circles around his eyes.

Lavi twitched again, only to sit up and tackle his grandfather. "Jiji, you're alive, I can't believe it! Panda Jiji!"

He was shut up by another kick to his head. "How many times do I tell you not to call me that, you foolish apprentice!?" Bookman ordered. "Walker, take this." His scroll was tossed at Allen's face, who caught it just barely in time.

"What's this? And y-you're alive?" Allen stammered. Bookman eyed him. "I mean, we haven't seen or heard from you for years!"

The old man sighed, sitting down on a chair. "I guess I should explain this situation after all. Walker, pick up the map."

Kanda came up behind Allen as the white-haired boy unfurled the scroll with a gasp. At the very top of the map was a single Latin phrase and its translation.

_Terra Incognito - Lands Off the Maps_

"This is where we are, Walker. We are literally in another dimension." All five looked up in disbelief.

"Is it possible at all to get back, then?" Allen questioned.

_You don't exist in the real world when you're off the maps~!_

Bookman shrugged. "I'm not sure. It's a pity the local library doesn't have a collection of Japanese folktales."

Komui interrupted. "Why do you say that? What on earth would a fairy tale do for us?"

_You've walked into the impossible fairy tale~!_

"Sometimes, there is truth in fairy tales," the Bookman insisted. "And I recall reading a story about a group trapped in a demonic tornado which made everyone sleep. In the end, they escaped, but their method eludes this old mind."

Kanda suddenly spoke up. "Do you mean the one of Nanatsu-kai no Tatsumaki?"

_Seven children of tornados playing~_

"You know it? _You know it?_" the Bookman rasped. "Do you have the book? Do you know the ending?"

The swordsman hesitated. Outside, the winds of the tornado grew louder, shrieking loudly as if in protest to their talk. "Lenalee, do you remember how I insisted how we shouldn't move the mailman when we were moving the sleepers a few years back and we left him in his car?"

The wind screamed suddenly, as if sensing impending doom falling upon them. Lenalee nodded, tilting her head to the side in recollection. "Yeah. Why?"

_One person carries the key to escape~!_

He breathed in. "The legend says that…"

_Ride on the back of the [_]~_

"…the children escaped from the tornado yokai by riding on the cart of the herald of Amateratsu."

_Only the [_] can take you out~!_

"How did they convince the envoy of the gods to let them ride the cart?" Allen asked.

Kanda glanced at him momentarily. "The children had letters and awards to give to their parents, but they begged the Tori to let them deliver it themselves and ride on the mail cart."

Something clicked. "Hey! Does anyone have a letter for the mailman to deliver?" Lavi asked with wide eyes.

_The envoy sleeps, waiting for a letter to deliver~_

A piece of paper was held up.

It was an envelope. Unmarked.

"U-umm, I do," Allen announced breathlessly.

The Japanese man took the map and the letter, staring at them together. "Nice to meet you, Messenger."

Outside, the tornado screamed and the winds picked up speed.

_To get off the maps, meet the Messenger~!_

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__**Exile: I just love AUs. And Yullen. And messing with my reader's minds. **

**Review?**


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